06/26/2017

The AGM-158 Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM, had a very troubled development, but is now in service, in its original and extended range form, and is being developed as the next generation of air launched anti-ship missile. A further development program is underway to field it as a surface to surface anti-ship missile. One would hardly be surprised if a land attack surface launched variant emerged as well.

The JASSM is very stealthy, and you’ll notice in the video, a lot of the target arrays simulate air defense systems such as the S-300/400.

06/25/2017

I’ve never been on a cruise ship, but I hear the food is pretty good. This is quite long, but also an interesting look at the challenge of feeding several thousand people three gourmet meals a day. While they have some advantages over, say, the galley of a carrier, they also face the some of the same issues, such as managing storage space and time constraints.

06/21/2017

I just finished Carol Reardon’s “Launch The Intruders,” a history of VA-75’s 1972 deployment to the Vietnam War.

During the course of the cruise, two or three crewmen turned in their wings. Here’s the thing. Flight duty is strictly voluntary. No one can make you climb into the plane. You can turn in your wings, and that’s that. When the crewman turned in their wings, the squadron would strive to get them off the boat as quickly as possible, and sent back home.

What’s interesting is why the pilots turned in their wings. One guy, while scared, admitted that dying would be bad, but worse would be killing his bombadier navigator sitting next to him. The B/N is just along for the ride, so to speak, as he doesn’t have any flight controls.

Reaction from the rest of the squadron was interesting. As long as the guy turning in his wings wasn’t displaying abject cowardice, they tended to be fairly understanding, and didn’t utterly shun them.

In the Infantry, a guy that didn’t pull his weight was shunned. Hard. Falling out on a road march absent severe symptoms of heat exhaustion, whining about your load, not wanting to take your turn at the hard tasks… those things will cost you a great deal. And the Infantry is a very social organization. Losing your standing there will make your life miserable.

In early 1991, your humble scribe was deployed in a mechanized Infantry company with the 1st Armored Division as a part of Desert Shield/Desert Storm.

Sometime after the air war started, but before the ground offensive began, one of our troops suddenly decided he was a conscientious objector, and could not find it in himself to fight. There were a handful of incidents similar to this in units stateside facing deployment. And in our ranks, they were met with universal scorn. How contemptible to back out of an obligation freely assumed.

But in the case of our sudden conscientious objector, things were a little different. He didn’t want to go home. He didn’t want to avoid the battle. He just didn’t want to shoot at anyone.

Rather than involve the massive bureaucracy of the Army, involving written statements, interviews, the Judge Advocate General, and who knows what else, the company commander simply said, “Fine.” Our man handed his weapon over to the supply sergeant, and spent the rest of the deployment riding in the CO’s Humvee, a vehicle who’s armor consisted of canvas doors. He never once tried to get out of a work detail, or secure a position of greater safety or comfort.

I was at first annoyed with the man. But eventually, while I never fully understood his motives, decided I could not shun him.

“In past decades we’ve adjusted for gender and age, and now we’re looking at other factors,” said Army spokesman Maj. Rod Larson, while clicking through a BuzzFeed slideshow including pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio and Adam Sandler at the beach. “Meet the Dependent Authorized-Duty Body, or ‘DADBOD’ for short.”

The modified standards allow for an unlimited waist size and slower running speeds, but still require enough upper-body strength to whoop a younger man’s ass.

The Burke class ships were built with survivability in mind. They were designed to take a hit.

When a ship is damaged, via combat or other hazards, the crew springs into damage control efforts. But what exactly does that entail?

Two recent examples of the effort required to save the ship are the USS Samuel B. Roberts in the Persian Gulf, and the USS Cole in Aden, Yemen.

The US Naval Academy in 2014 hosted the commanding officers of both those ships for a discussion of the leadership, training, and teamwork that led to successful damage control efforts for these ships. Both were so badly damaged they probably should have sunk. Instead, both were saved and returned to the fleet.

When you look at USS Fitzgerald dockside in Yokuska, understand that the topside damage is almost superficial. It’s the damage below that waterline that is critical. She’s not only listing, she’s very much down by the bow. And I have no doubt that every minute since the collision has seen her crew working feverishly to repair, dewater, supply power, and stop flooding.